Punisher wrote: ↑Thu Jul 20, 2023 10:12 pm
So. I think I have this as a freebie on a frw different platforms but don't recall ever actually playing it or digging too deep.
I have questions.
1. Is this a free MMO or do I need a subscription to truly play it?
2. How much grind is there for a new player?
3. How easy/hard is it to hook up with friends?
4. How stable is it?
5. Is it twitch based or more easy going, especially for combat?
6. How important is it to know the lore?
7. Is there an overall story or plot or is it just a bunch of unrelated quests?
8. Is there an endgame story or plot?
9. Is it possible to accidentally build a broken character and have to start from scratch? If so, how easy/hard is it to accidentally doing so?
10. Are there any MUST have DLC or paks needed?
11. How easy is it to end the game for the day? Like if I just can't play anymore will I need to travel a 1/2 hour or something to get to a safe area?
Thanks. I may have more questions depending on answers.
I've played way too much F76 and have some opinions...
1. My friend played into the L200s w/o having a Fallout 1st subscription. That said, it's very convenient. If you like the game, you may want to subscribe for a month or two and build up some ammo in the ammo box and scrap in the scrap box. If you quit Fallout 1st, you don't lose that stuff, you just can't put any more into the boxes. I keep mine going for the QOL improvements.
2. For a new player there isn't a whole lot of grind. Early F76 is a lot like the other Fallouts, it's not super easy (or super hard). Enjoy that part of the game, later you will be playing a different game which isn't as difficult.
3. If you have friends, you can certainly play with them. OTOH, once my friend stopped playing, I don't play with anyone in particular. I'm always on a team, because you get benefits (like +1 int/person on a casual team once you've teamed up for 5 minutes), but I never talk to them. I'm on PC. On PC communicating with people is generally through emote and is not super intensive. When I played with my friend, we talked over Steam and there are lots of people who talk on Discord. On console things are somewhat different, but I've never played on console.
4. It's fairly stable. There are a fair number of bugs, and the game may crash occasionally, but it's much better than at the beginning.
5. Other people have covered twichiness. If you are playing a VATS commando it's not very twitchy at all. It is auto aim by hitting VATS.
6. Lore is interesting but not important.
7. There is a main quest line, a Wastelanders quest line, two Brotherhood of Steel quest lines, and maybe a couple others. Plenty to get you to L50.
8. Endgame is different. All the quest lines will be over and the main activity is doing the scoreboard, doing events, or grinding for gear. It's all pretty laid back.
9. At L25 you can respec. You can always change out perk cards, but at L25 you can have a number of specs that you choose at a machine that is either in the train stations or in your camp (or someone elses). Don't bother waiting to pick perks, that doesn't work. Just pick what you can when you can. Your build will probably not be filled out until L60-75, and after that perks are pretty much plentiful enough to use.
At L50/75/100/150/200/300 you get a legendary perk slot. You can put a legendary perk card in a slot and rank it up. This takes 50/100/150 perk points, or 300 total. You get 2 perk points for burning a perk card, so it takes a lot of perk cards to rank up a legendary perk card. You get 9 perk cards every 5 levels (5 for levelling + 4 random perk cards from a pack), so it takes a while to rank up your legendary perk cards. Once you get to L60-75, your initial build will be complete, once you get to 100 you'll probably have a couple of builds to choose from, and then after that it's about levelling up your legendary perk cards.
10. There are no DLCs to buy. Bethesda promised that there wasn't going to be paid DLC and arguably that has hurt the game; I'd be happy to pay them more money for more content. What you get every season (about 3 months) is more events, maybe some expeditions next year. Nothing you have to pay for. I pay for Fallout 1st (like I did for the ESO equivalent) for storage/quality of life.
Although... I spent 15$ on a Steam Sale to get the Pitt pack, which includes a power core recharger. Very helpful if you use power armor. In the grand scheme of things it's not essential. In the beginning power cores are pretty rare, in endgame you'll be swimming in them.
11. When you quit, you will restart near where you left off. Most of the time I quit either in one of my camps or in one of the free fast travel spots. If you are overloaded, you can't fast travel. You'll have to either drop some loot or walk to town to sell stuff.
In general, the game is pretty laid back. Death essentially means nothing; you drop any junk (not weapons or armor or chems, etc.) you have. You can go back to get it later unless somebody snatched it. In events, you don't even drop your junk (though that changes the second the event ends). Death is not a big deal. If you have problems with a build, just store your junk in your stash/scrapbox and death has no sting.
L50 is the max level for gear. After you get to L50 you can use all gear. Good gear takes a bit of grinding, or if you have caps you can buy from player vendors. If you are patient, you can pick up a relatively good set of gear over time from vendors and drops. Godlike gear takes grinding, but the game is pretty easy so you don't absolutely need godlike gear.
Players are generally friendly. There are some assholes, but in general people are helpful, especially to new players. Lots of people give new players stuff. If you are in combat (like in an event), and you go to 0 hp, you can be revived for a short time. People are usually very helpful with that.
Money is capped, a character can get 1400 caps/day from the vendors, you can only have 40k caps/character, and you can't trade gold without a mule account. This keeps inflation away. A good weapon will cost you 15-40k caps. I don't think I've ever spent more than 30k caps on anything. My toons are more likely to be at 40k and need to find something to spend money on.
At endgame it's all about legendary weapons and armor that fit your builds. You'll get some of those on your way to L50 but once you get there you will concentrate on getting all L50 legendary gear and upgrading to better legendary gear. You can convert legendary items you don't want to legendary scrip, which you can use to buy legendary modules. With legendary modules and legendary cores (which you get from events) you can re-roll an item. It's up to the RNG whether you get anything good or not.
You get 5 characters/account. I have characters at L675, L495, L395, L338, and L3. Multiple characters are useful because if you play a lot at endgame you'll get your 1400 caps/day pretty quickly and move to another character.
Getting to L50 and doing the quests is interesting, there's quite a bit of content. Then you get to the endgame where you basically need to keep yourself entertained. You can do events, work your way up the scoreboard, improve your gear, and do whatever else you want to do. Lots of people work on their camps. In order to build a weapon, armor, or camp item you need plans to build it. These drop from critters or events and you also can buy them from other player's vendors.
Every three months or so there is a "season" with a scoreboard. You get score by playing the game and doing daily/weekly challenges. The scoreboards have 100 ranks, and at each rank you get something - maybe a perk card pack, or some gold bullion, or a cosmetic item. Scoreboards can have some good gear - a couple of seasons back you had to do the board to get Union power armor plans (the best in the game), but usually it's mostly buffs or camp items.
For endgame players this is one of the big things to do. I normally can get through the daily challenges in an hour or two of play, and I maxed out the scoreboard in just under 30 days. YMMV.
F76 is generally relaxing to play and kind of fun, especially if you are into the Fallout universe. I spend money on Fallout 1st for QOL issues, but my friend didn't. In the early game it's not super critical. That part of the game is actually the most fun.
If you're going to play you should read up on builds as you get closer to endgame. There are a few "meta" builds that are very heavily used. Some people use power armor and heavy weapons. Others play commando builds. You'll see a lot of people with 20% HPs and the rest of their health bar red from radiation. That's because they are running a "bloodied" build, using weapons and armor that benefit from low HPs. That's what I run all the time; you aren't nearly as squishy as you would think
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